Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs co-founder addresses comeback rumors amid ongoing health break

Wylie Aronow said he’s been seeing many tweets this week asking when he’s planning to return to the helm at Yuga Labs.

Nonfungible token (NFT) entrepreneur Wylie Aronow has confirmed he isn’t ready to return to Yuga Labs, the NFT firm he co-founded, despite making “steady progress” with his health.

“I’m not ready to come back to even part-time work. I have to ensure I’m around for a long time, for those who need me,” Aronow said on Dec. 11 in addressing rumors of a potential return.

Aronow explained that some days, he’s ready to throw himself into the “deep end,” while on other days, he feels he needs to be “wheel-chaired” to an emergency room.

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Nifty News: Yuga Labs scores court battle win, Mandala Metaverse to drop on Polkadot and more…

A metaverse/AR story game is coming to Polkadot, Square Enix has made another Web3 gaming play, and an NFT esports cricket game has launched on Tezos.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creator Yuga Labs has scored a key victory in its long-running court battle with Ryder Ripps, the co-creator of copycat nonfungible token (NFT) project RR/BAYC.

Yuga Labs initially filed a complaint against Ryder Ripps and his co-founder, Jeremy Cahen, back in July 2022, alleging that the duo had engaged in trademark infringement, false advertising and unfair competition, among other things.

In a pre-trial summary judgment ruling on April 21, the United States District Court for the Central District of California found that Ripps and Cahen had infringed Yuga Lab’s trademarks with their RR/BAYC NFT collection.

The court further ruled that Yuga Labs is entitled to an injunction and damages, the latter of which will be determined at trial.

In a message shared with Cointelegraph, a Yuga Labs spokesperson said:

“In a landmark legal victory for Web3, a federal judge found that Ryder Ripps and Jermey Cahen infringed Yuga Lab’s intellectual property. This isn’t just a win for us, it’s a win for the entire Web3 industry to hold scammers and counterfeiters accountable.”

Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen created RR/BAYC back in May 2022 as a satire and protest against Yuga Labs. The project essentially uses all of the same imagery as the original BAYC NFTs.

Copycat NFTs. Source: RR/BAYC

Ripps, in particular, is a leading proponent of the conspiracy theory that Yuga Labs purposely designed the BAYC artwork to convey racist caricatures. Additionally, Ripps also asserts that the project’s logo and branding have several nods to certain Nazi symbols and language.

Mandala Metaverse to drop on Polkadot

Upcoming cross-chain augmented reality (AR) game Mandala Metaverse has chosen Polkadot parachain Astar Network to host its first major NFT drop on April 28.

Mandala Metaverse is a story-based project with content spanning TV, graphic novels, gaming and AR. Its gaming elements have been developed in Epic Games’ AAA quality Unreal Engine.

The drop is called “Cryptonauts,” and the NFTs depict various avatars that will serve as playable characters in the game. The artwork was illustrated by comic artist Bruce Zick, who has worked with giants such as Disney and Marvel.

The Polkadot blockchain is not necessarily known for hosting gaming and NFT projects, with the network not even having any recorded sales data on aggregators such as CryptoSlam.

Regarding the decision to take the Cryptonauts NFTs to Polkadot, Mandala Metaverse CEO Jon Shanker noted:

“Polkadot has real future-proof NFT applications, such as nesting, staking and the ability to send NFTs over bridges – plus many other innovative ways to use NFT assets. We can now do things we didn’t think were possible.”

Square Enix partners with Elixir Games

Final Fantasy developer Square Enix has partnered with Web3 infrastructure firm Elixir Games to bring blockchain gaming to the mainstream.

The move was announced on April 19, though specific details on the partnership are still sparse.

Elixir hosts both traditional and Web3 games on its platform and also offers Web3 distribution features for its partnered games, such as NFT sales and marketplaces.

As such, Square Enix will likely take advantage of those features when launching games via Elixir, something the firm has become increasingly interested in doing over the past year or so.

Related: NFT.NYC: Games and tokenization are driving NFT industry maturation

“This partnership brings us closer to Web3 gaming mass adoption. Our team is incredibly excited to bring our technology to work, and we foresee Elixir users playing Web2 and Web3 games alike without distinction,” said Carlos Roldan, Elixir Games’ CEO, as part of the announcement. Roldan added:

“2023 has already seen more industry leaders enter the space with impactful projects, and we anticipate to see more as the year progresses. We’ve put all efforts to ensure we are ready for scalability.”

NFT cricket game on Tezos

A free-to-play multiplayer NFT cricket strategy game called Cricket Stars has been launched on the Tezos blockchain.

The game is being led by Tezos India — an organization that focuses on developing projects on Tezos — in partnership with esports game publisher GoLive Games. Despite the name, however, no licensing deals with actual cricket stars appear to be in place.

Cricket Stars. Source: GoLive Games

Cricket Stars follows a similar model to other sports NFT games, like Sorare, by offering player cards that can be used to have an effect on the game or traded on the marketplace. The game also offers player vs. player modes, knockout tournaments and esports tournaments.

“We understand the power of blockchain technology and its role in the gaming ecosystem. Our partnership with Tezos India is an astounding statement of blockchain technology becoming an integral part of the gaming industry,“ noted GoLive Games founder Ravi Kiran as part of the announcement. 

Nifty News: Gucci to drop Otherside pendants, Jack Daniels taps AR, Web3 and more

Jack Daniels is dropping digital collectibles in an AR game, while Fifa launched an AI-football simulation game that will eventually ship NFT integrations.

Otherside holders get dripped out in Gucci

Luxury fashion house Gucci has designed a limited edition pendant for Yuga Labs’ Otherside metaverse, which will come in both physical and nonfungible token (NFT) forms.

Gucci’s silver jewelry piece is dubbed the “KodaPendant,” and will drop on April 6 for hodlers of the Koda or Vessel NFTs, which function as either creatures or avatars in Otherside.

Koda and KodaPendant NFT artwork. Source: Yuga Labs

The physical chain itself is 50 centimeters long, with a Koda-shaped pendant engraved with “GG.” There will be 3,333 in total on sale for 450 ApeCoin (APE) a pop, worth roughly $1,930 at current prices.

Once the NFTs are purchased, their Koda or Vessel NFT metadata will be updated with a KodaPendant trait, resulting in a physical update to the token’s associated animated character.

It is the first drop of a broader collection called “Otherside Relics” By Gucci, with the two brands being tight-lipped on what comes next.

Explaining the partnership in an April 4 blog post, Yuga Labs noted the duo is looking to “push the boundaries at the intersection of fashion, entertainment, and gaming.”

“Throughout our extensive partnership, we will work together to engage Voyagers in immersive experiences at the intersection of fashion, entertainment, and technology,” the firm wrote.

Jack Daniels gets nifty

Whiskey producer Jack Daniels has launched a new Web3-focused campaign built around Polygon-based digital collectibles and augmented reality (AR) in partnership with Yahoo Creative Studios.

In a Pokemon Go-style map-based game, the duo will launch an AR mobile experience across five Australian cities where users can explore specific areas to find a “Jack Daniel’s crate.”

The crates contain prizes such as gift vouchers, trips to a Jack Daniel’s distillery, and NFT music tracks from three Australian bands: Winston Surfshirt, Stand Atlantic and the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.

There are 2,000 tracks up for grabs, and if someone finds a crate, they can mint it as a collectible on Polygon.

Discussing the idea behind the campaign with Bandt on April 3, Dimitra Tassopoulos, the senior brand manager for the Jack Daniel’s Family of Brands, noted:

“We briefed our media agency, Starcom, and said to them ‘we’re a big brand, we need to push boundaries and look at doing stuff differently.’ We’re going to do out-of-home, digital, social and events, but we need to find new and innovative ideas.”

“I remember when bands released music, and people lined up to purchase it. They could see the cover art and open it up to see the lyrics. That’s something that the younger generation has not had the joy of discovering because things seem a little less personal when you’re streaming the song rather than owning the song,” he said.

NFT thieves cashed out on Blur in March

Roughly $10.9 million worth of NFTs were stolen in March, with three-quarters of them being first re-sold on the Blur marketplace, according to data from blockchain security firm PeckShield.

Tweeting from its alert-focused account on April 2, the firm said half of the stolen NFTs in March were sold within two hours of being swiped, with 19.5% of the sales coming from OpenSea.

“$10.9M worth of NFTs were stolen, representing a 32.72%% decrease from the previous month. Half of the stolen NFTs were quickly sold on marketplaces within 2 hours,” the firm tweeted.

PackShield did not offer an explanation for why the NFT thieves flocked to Blur in March.

Notably, the stolen NFT activity on the marketplace was much lower in February, representing roughly 20% of the first sales of stolen NFTs despite the platform being in the middle of a token airdrop campaign.

Fifa’s new AI Web3 game

Fifa, the international governing body behind association soccer, launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3-based mobile game called “AI League” on April 4.

AI League initially launched in open beta on Android, with plans to come to Apple’s app store soon.

It consists of a “4-on-4 casual football game, played between AI-controlled characters,” with the player acting as a coach by controlling tactics and customizing player attributes.

Related: What are dynamic NFTs?: Use cases and examples

The AI characters do not depict actual professional players, instead resembling characters from an animated film or avatar-based NFT project.

In terms of Web3, the characters will eventually become NFTs that can be traded on a marketplace developed by Fifa. The game was announced late last year as part of a range of Web3 games that were supposed to ship before the 2022 world cup in Qatar.

Other Nifty News

According to a March 30 report from blockchain analytics platform DappRadar, NFT trading volume hit $4.7 billion in Q1 2023 — more than double that of the previous quarter. The firm pointed to bullish action from the Blur marketplace, which took the market by storm during its token airdrop farming period in February.

In light of Hong Kong’s commitment to developing cryptocurrency infrastructure, fintech official King Leung recently visited Japan to talk with policymakers and regulators in Tokyo to better understand the idea around Web3 digital assets.

Related: NFT Creator, Emily Xie: Creating ‘organic’ generative art from robotic algorithms

SVB collapse chilled NFT trading volumes: DappRadar

Just 11,440 NFT traders were active on March 11, which was the lowest figure recorded since November 2021.

Nonfungible token trading volumes took a massive beating following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week as traders fled the markets, fearing the repercussions of a major United States bank going under.

According to a March 16 report from data aggregation platform DappRadar, NFT trading volumes were hovering between $68 million to $74 million in the lead-up to SVB’s collapse on March 10, then fell to $36 million on March 12.

The dip was accompanied by a 27.9% drop in daily NFT sales count between March 9 to March 11.

NFT trading volume and sales count on all networks between March 1-13. Source: DappRadar

Just 11,440 NFT traders were “active”  on March 11, the lowest figure recorded since November 2021, according to DappRadar.

The report said that the depeg of USD Coin (USDC) — which dropped as low as $0.88 — moved trader attention away from the NFT market:

As a result, “NFT traders became less active,” Dappradar explained.

Despite the trading chills the market value of “blue chip” NFTs was not materially impacted, with the floor prices of collections such as the Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks only slightly falling.

The floor price of BAYC NFTs fell 2%, from 68.4 ETH to 67 ETH, since the SVB collapse. Source: OpenSea

“The recovery was quick, showing the resilience of these top-tier NFTs,” DappRadar said. “Blue-Chip NFTs remain a steady investment in a disrupted market.”

The steady floor prices of the BAYC and CryptoPunks may be attributed to the team behind the collections, Yuga Labs, confirming it only had a “super limited exposure” to SVB, according to co-founder Greg Solano.

Related: 74% of survey participants say they buy NFTs for status

However, the floor price of the Moonbirds collection fell a significant 35.3% from 6.18 Ether (ETH) to 4 ETH on OpenSea, following the news that PROOF — the team behind the NFTs — had considerable exposure to SVB.

The floor price of Moonbird since the SVB collapse. Source: OpenSea

This was partially triggered by one Ethereum address selling almost 500 Moonbirds NFTs for losses ranging between 9% to 33%, DappRadar said.

The sell-offs on the NFT marketplace Blur totaled a loss of 700 Ether.

Yuga Labs’ first Bitcoin NFT auction nets $16.5M in 24 hours

The highest of the 288 bidders forked out just over 7 BTC for one of the 288 Bitcoin Ordinals-based NFTs up for auction.

The auction for Yuga Labs’ inaugural Bitcoin Ordinal nonfungible token collection has ended, netting the firm $16.5 million in just 24 hours. 

A total of 288 bidders won one of the Bitcoin NFTs from the “TwelveFold” collection. Yuga said the winners will receive their inscription within one week, while the unsuccessful bids will have their bid amount returned within 24 hours.

The auction yielded 735 Bitcoin (BTC) worth an estimated $16.5 million at current prices. The highest of the 288 bidders paid just over 7 BTC or $161,000 for one of the pieces.

Top 10 bids leaderboard. Source: TwelveFold
Bottom ten bids, the lowest won #288. Source: TwelveFold

Yuga announced the collection in late February, describing it as a “base 12 art system localized around a 12×12 grid, a visual allegory for the cartography of data on the Bitcoin blockchain.”

TwelveFold #1 won by the highest bidder. Source: Yuga Labs

It comprises a limited edition collection of 300 generative pieces inscribed on Satoshis on the BTC network. The lucky winners were eager to share their new NFTs online:

Related: Nifty News: Yuga Labs jumps on Ordinals hype

As reported by Cointelegraph, Yuga Labs received backlash over the weekend from the crypto community, which identified flaws in how Yuga conducted the auction for the Ordinals collection.

‘Scammers dream’ — Yuga’s auction model for Bitcoin NFTs sees criticism

Yuga Labs’ first Bitcoin NFT collection saw some backlash from the crypto community over the weekend, pointing to flaws in how it conducts the auction.

Nonfungible token (NFT) company Yuga Labs faces criticism from the cryptocurrency community, including the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, over how it plans to auction its new Bitcoin NFT collection. 

On March 5, Yuga opened bids for its “TwelveFold” collection, which will see 300 NFT-like images inscribed on satoshis using the Bitcoin-native Ordinals protocol, with 288 from the collection sent to the highest 288 bidders.

According to a March 5 press release, those participating in the bidding process must send their entire bid amount in Bitcoin (BTC) to a unique BTC address controlled by Yuga. Winners would simply pay up the BTC they bid, while Yuga said it would return BTC to those unsuccessful in placing a top bid.

However, such a plan has earned the ire of some within the crypto community, with some pointing out that having to conduct refunds for unsuccessful bids manually is like the “stone age.”

The user behind an Ordinals-focused Twitter account “ordinally” called the auction model a “scammers dream,” adding while they doubt Yuga would keep the BTC from failed bids, the way it carries out the auction sets a “REALLY bad precedence.”

The post even saw a response from Bitcoin Ordinals creator, Casey Rodarmor, who hotly weighed in on the discussion, telling Yuga to “get fucked” and calling the conduct of the auction “degenerate bullshit.”

He added if Yuga were to conduct a similar auction he would encourage others to boycott the project.

Other users pointed out the shortcomings of the auction system, saying it’s possible some could overpay for a TwelveFold due to a potential significant price discrepancy between the highest and lowest bids in the top 288.

Despite the criticism from some, many were happy to see a large project such as Yuga — which rose to prominence due to multiple Ethereum-based NFT collections — bridge across to Bitcoin.

Related: Luxor Mining acquires OrdinalHub amid Bitcoin-based NFTs hype

Ordinally, who criticized the collection, later tweeted appreciation of “the fact that Yuga took the effort to attempt [to] go a Bitcoin route when setting up this auction.”

An Ordinals-based collection, Ordinal Pizza OG, expressed excitement at Yuga’s BTC collection and called it a “massive net positive for Ordinals.”

The criticisms weren’t enough to stop cashed-up bidders from wanting to try to cement a top spot to nab Yuga’s first BTC collection.

At the time of writing, the top bid was 1.11 BTC (around $25,000), according to the TwelveFold website with the lowest bid registered showing as 0.011 BTC, or around $250.

Nifty News: Yuga Labs jumps on Ordinals hype, Dookey Dash key sells for 1,000 ETH and more…

Google Trends data shows interest in NFTs has waned, even as trading volumes are surging, while Korean multinational giant Lotte has partnered with Polygon.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators Yuga Labs has announced a new NFT collection on Bitcoin dubbed “TwelveFold.”

The move was announced via Twitter on Feb. 28, with Yuga Labs unveiling 300 tokenized computer generated artworks as part of the TwelveFold collection that will go up for auction later this week.

In an accompanying blog post, Yuga Labs explained the concept behind the collection is based on mathematics, time and the Bitcoin blockchain.

“TwelveFold is a base 12 art system localized around a 12×12 grid, a visual allegory for the cartography of data on the Bitcoin blockchain,” the post reads, adding that:

“Satoshis are the smallest individually identifiable units of a Bitcoin. An inscribed satoshi can be located by tracking when that satoshi was minted in time via the Ordinal Theory protocol.”

“Inspired by this, our collection explores the relationship between time, mathematics, and variability,” it explained.

TwelveFold NFT: Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs cited the recent buzz around Bitcoin NFTs, or Ordinals, as the reason why it chose to drop a collection on the network.

“Stepping into the Ordinals Discord a month ago felt like getting a glimpse of the 2017-era Ethereum NFT ecosystem. It’s the type of energy and excitement we love at Yuga,” the firm stated.

Search down, trading up

According to Google Trend data, search interest for NFTs has fallen to levels not seen since early 2021 — before the NFT boom — suggesting interest could be waning for nonfungible tokens.

NFT trading volume data from February however, suggests otherwise.

Google Trends uses a metric of 0-100 to display interest in various keywords that people look up in its search engine. Between Feb. 19 and Feb. 25, the keyword “NFTs” scored a mere seven out of 100.

Such levels haven’t been seen since early-to-mid January 2021, while it has been a steep decline since the all-time high of 100 between Jan. 23 and Jan. 29, 2022.

“NFTs” search interest: Google Trends

NFT trading volume in February paints a different picture however.

According to data from CryptoSlam, there has been $997.14 million worth of global NFT sales for the month, following on from the $1 billion posted in January.

These levels bring the NFT market back to that of June 2022 and its $982 million worth of sales, before dipping to a low of $460 million in October 2022. 

More recently, sales volume has been on a significant incline, with the launch of the trader-friendly marketplace Blur being a key contributor behind this.

Twitch streamer sells Dookey Dash key for 1,000 ETH

The man who won the Golden Key NFT for posting the highest score on the BAYC-affiliated Dookey Dash game has sold the token for 1,000 Ether (ETH), or roughly $1.63 million.

Twitch streamer Kyle Jackson, also known by his pseudonym Mongraal online, initially received the key on Feb. 16 after notching a hefty 928,522 points during the Dookey Dash competition hosted by Yuga Labs.

Wasting no time, Mongraal announced on Feb. 27, that he had agreed to sell the key to Adam Weitsman, BAYC NFT hodler and CEO of scrap metal shredding company Upstate Shredding.

The Golden Key is bound to unlock something special from Yuga Labs, however, the specific details have not yet been revealed.

Polygon pens another major partnership

Polygon Foundation, the non-profit organization behind Ethereum-layer 2 scaling network Polygon, has partnered with South Korean multinational conglomerate Lotte Group to host the firm’s NFT projects.

According to a Feb. 27 announcement from Lotte’s marketing and NFT hub, Daehong Communications, the partnership will see Lotte’s avatar-based NFT project BellyGom ported over to Polygon from the Klatyn network.

The project will be rebranded as BellyGom season 2, and the NFTs offer hodlers benefits relating to Lotte’s product and service lines such as shopping discount coupons and hotel vouchers. New additionally benefits have been teased moving forward, but details were sparse in the announcement.

Lotte has nearly 100 different business units across areas such as fast food, candy manufacturing, electronics and hotels. As of September 2022, the firm is estimated to have around $15 billion worth of assets on its balance sheet.

Looking more broadly, the firm has outlined intentions to develop its Web3 initiatives in partnership with Polygon, as Lotte looks to expand its NFTs to a global audience and develop “a new NFT business model rather than simply issuing NFTs.”

Related: Blur runs after OpenSea market share, but its success depends on upcoming governance proposals

The move adds to Polygon’s growing list of partnerships with major brands such as Startbucks, Adidas, Adobe and Prada.

Other Nifty News

According to a survey from metaverse platform, Metajuice, almost three out of four of the NFT collectors on its platform purchase NFTs for status, uniqueness and aesthetics.On the other hand, 13% percent of the survey participants said that they are buying NFTs to resell them in the future.

A group of well-known Japanese tech companies agreed on Feb. 27 to forward the creation of the “Japan Metaverse Economic Zone. Along with creating the Japan Metaverse Economic Zone, the agreement focuses on building an open metaverse infrastructure called “Ryugukoku,” which will spark the next wave of metaverse development.

Nifty News: Yuga Labs jumps on Ordinals hype, Dookey Dash key sells for 1,000 ETH and more

Google Trends data shows interest in NFTs has waned, even as trading volumes are surging, while Korean multinational giant Lotte has partnered with Polygon.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators Yuga Labs have announced a new nonfungible token (NFT) collection on Bitcoin dubbed “TwelveFold.”

The move was announced via Twitter on Feb. 28, with Yuga Labs unveiling 300 tokenized computer-generated artworks as part of the TwelveFold collection that will go up for auction later this week.

In an accompanying blog post, Yuga Labs explained the concept behind the collection is based on mathematics, time and the Bitcoin blockchain.

“TwelveFold is a base 12 art system localized around a 12×12 grid, a visual allegory for the cartography of data on the Bitcoin blockchain,” the post reads, adding that:

“Satoshis are the smallest individually identifiable units of a Bitcoin. An inscribed satoshi can be located by tracking when that satoshi was minted in time via the Ordinal Theory protocol.”

“Inspired by this, our collection explores the relationship between time, mathematics, and variability,” it explained.

TwelveFold NFT: Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs cited the recent buzz around Bitcoin NFTs, or Ordinals, as why it chose to drop a collection on the network.

“Stepping into the Ordinals Discord a month ago felt like getting a glimpse of the 2017-era Ethereum NFT ecosystem. It’s the type of energy and excitement we love at Yuga,” the firm stated.

Search down, trading up

According to Google Trend data, search interest for NFTs has fallen to levels not seen since early 2021 — before the NFT boom — suggesting interest could be waning for NFTs.

NFT trading volume data from February however, suggests otherwise.

Google Trends uses a metric of 0–100 to display interest in various keywords that people look up in its search engine. Between Feb. 19 and Feb. 25, the keyword “NFTs” scored a mere seven out of 100.

Such levels haven’t been seen since early-to-mid January 2021, while it has been a steep decline since the all-time high of 100 between Jan. 23 and Jan. 29, 2022.

“NFTs” search interest: Google Trends

NFT trading volume in February paints a different picture, however.

According to data from CryptoSlam, there has been $997.14 million worth of global NFT sales for the month, following the $1 billion posted in January.

These levels bring the NFT market back to June 2022 and its $982 million worth of sales before dipping to a low of $460 million in October 2022.

More recently, sales volume has been on a significant incline, with the launch of the trader-friendly marketplace Blur being a key contributor behind this.

Twitch streamer sells Dookey Dash key for 1,000 ETH

The man who won the Golden Key NFT for posting the highest score on the BAYC-affiliated Dookey Dash game has sold the token for 1,000 Ether (ETH), or roughly $1.63 million.

Twitch streamer Kyle Jackson, also known by his pseudonym Mongraal online, initially received the key on Feb. 16 after notching a hefty 928,522 points during the Dookey Dash competition hosted by Yuga Labs.

Wasting no time, Mongraal announced on Feb. 27 that he had agreed to sell the key to Adam Weitsman, BAYC NFT hodler and CEO of scrap metal shredding company Upstate Shredding.

The Golden Key is bound to unlock something special from Yuga Labs; however, the specific details have not yet been revealed.

Polygon pens another major partnership

Polygon Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind Ethereum layer 2 scaling network Polygon, has partnered with South Korean multinational conglomerate Lotte Group to host the firm’s NFT projects.

According to a Feb. 27 announcement from Lotte’s marketing and NFT hub, Daehong Communications, the partnership will see Lotte’s avatar-based NFT project BellyGom ported over to Polygon from the Klaytn network.

The project will be rebranded as BellyGom season two, and the NFTs offer hodlers benefits relating to Lotte’s product and service lines, such as shopping discount coupons and hotel vouchers. New additional benefits have been teased moving forward, but details were sparse in the announcement.

Lotte has nearly 100 business units across areas such as fast food, candy manufacturing, electronics and hotels. As of September 2022, the firm is estimated to have around $15 billion in assets on its balance sheet.

Looking more broadly, the firm has outlined intentions to develop its Web3 initiatives in partnership with Polygon as Lotte looks to expand its NFTs to a global audience and develop “a new NFT business model rather than simply issuing NFTs.”

Related: Blur runs after OpenSea market share, but its success depends on upcoming governance proposals

The move adds to Polygon’s growing list of partnerships with major brands such as Startbucks, Adidas, Adobe and Prada.

Other Nifty News

According to a survey from metaverse platform, Metajuice, almost three out of four of the NFT collectors on its platform purchase NFTs for status, uniqueness and aesthetics.On the other hand, 13% percent of the survey participants said that they are buying NFTs to resell them in the future.

A group of well-known Japanese tech companies agreed on Feb. 27 to forward the creation of the Japan Metaverse Economic Zone. Along with creating the zone, the agreement focuses on building an open metaverse infrastructure called “Ryugukoku,” which will spark the next wave of metaverse development.

Nifty News: Yuga in doghouse over Kennel Club logo, NFT marketplace wars rage on and more

The logo for a popular Yuga Labs NFT collection is being changed after it was seemingly ripped off from a follow-along children’s drawing creator.

New logo slated for Yuga’s dog-themed NFT collection

The logo for the Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) from nonfungible token (NFT) conglomerate Yuga Labs is getting a refresh after recently surfaced allegations of intellectual property theft.

Yuga co-founder, Greg Solano, more widely known as “Garga” tweeted on Feb. 18 that the BAKC logo would be changing and the project would “debut the new logo soon.”

Yuga has been in the doghouse over its trademarked logo as it looks remarkably similar to the finished product of a follow-along drawing guide made for children by a company called Easy Drawing Guides.

Easy Drawing Guides released a wolf skull drawing guide on April 5, 2021, a little over two months prior to BAKC’s June 17, 2021 launch. The firm has asserted its intellectual property rights over the drawing.

Solano said the whole debacle “was news to us,” adding Yuga was “still investigating the situation” and had contacted Easy Drawing Guides and the freelance artist contracted for the design.

Blurred lines: NFT marketplace wars surge sales

NFT sales over the past seven days have skyrocketed amid a battle for domination between OpenSea and its rival Blur — with the two sparring over fees and creator royalties.

According to data from NFT aggregator CryptoSlam, NFT sales volume has increased over 101% in the past week compared to the week prior and has hit over $524 million transacted in the last seven days at the time of writing.

Seven-day data shows fewer NFTs are selling for higher prices as NFT transactions have slightly declined while sales volume and buyers have increased. Source: CryptoSlam!

One of the key factors in the rise was Blur’s token airdrop on Feb. 14 giving users the incentive to farm the drop by using the platform.

Blur has remained the dominant marketplace in terms of trading volume since the start of the year and has dominated OpenSea in that regard.

Analytics from DappRadar show the trend continuing over the past week — with Blur seeing nearly $400 million in volume compared to OpenSea’s $105 million.

OpenSea has recently spun up a comeback campaign and has slashed its platform fee to zero, enacted optional creator royalties and more lenient blocks on other marketplaces.

‘Fat-finger’ blunder costs NFT trader thousands of dollars

The pseudonymous NFT collector known as “Franklin” has made a “fat-finger” mistake bidding on a collection, which saw him accidentally bidding more than 21 times the floor price of an NFT.

On Feb. 19, Franklin owned up to the bungled purchase, which saw him buy an NFT from the Azuki project’s BEANZ collection for 35 ETH — or around $60,000 at the time — despite the floor price being around 1.7 ETH, or $2,800.

He said he “placed a fat-finger collection offer” on the BEANZ collection but was actually meant to input a “much lower bid with a quantity of 35.”

“I instead bid 35 ETH for 1 purchase […] It got accepted before I could cancel. Oops. I’ll be okay.” Franklin tweeted.

It however appears that Franklin was the owner of Bean #10626 for only a short time as just two hours after the blundered purchase it was sold for just 1.77 WETH — an equivalent loss of nearly $56,000.

Free mint Starbucks NFTs now fetching high prices

An initially free NFT collection launched by the global cafe chain Starbucks is now seeing NFTs inexplicitly list for thousands of dollars just two months after the initial mint.

The Starbucks Odyssey Polygon NFT collection is a rewards program launched in December 2022, still in closed beta. Only four “drops” have been released amassing a total volume of $148,000, the first of which is a 5,000-strong “stamp” titled Holiday Cheer Edition 1 Stamp.

The owners of the collection initially received the NFTs for free and, despite the low trading volume, now ask for around $2,000 for one token on Nifty Gateway.

The first NFT drop from Starbucks is currently asking a minimum price of $2,000. Source: Nifty Gateway

The collection on its own makes up $117,000, or around 80% of the total collections sales volume.

Related: What are the applications of NFTs in supply chains?

Being the first drop, the NFT could be seen as more special to certain collectors. Starbucks has also said rewards on its NFTs will range from NFT holder-only merch, invites to exclusive events and maybe a trip to a Costa Rican coffee farm.

Meanwhile, the other drops are seeing much lower floor prices, with another 5,000-strong drop going as low as $100, while a 30,000-strong drop is nearly half that at just $59.

Other Nifty News

KnownOrigin, the NFT marketplace from eBay, is launching no-code required creator smart contracts so artists can split earnings and earn royalties as co-creators on collections. A beta release has been tested for the last few weeks with 84 contracts deployed and 250 editions of NFTs minted.

The Web3-friendly Neal Mohan was appointed as the new chief of YouTube, his previous tentative plans for the platform included the potential for creators to tokenize videos, photos, art and experiences to bring them additional revenue streams.

BAYC copycat files opposition to 10 Yuga Labs trademark applications

A Yuga Labs spokesperson has played down the significance of the opposition notice and suggested that the RR/BAYC co-founder is just trying to cause trouble.

One of the founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) copycat NFT collection RR/BAYC has filed an opposition notice against 10 trademark applications from Yuga Labs.

The move marks another strange twist in the ongoing intellectual property dispute between BAYC creators Yuga Labs and RR/BAYC founders Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen.

Cahen filed the opposition notice to the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board on Feb. 9. The opposition status on all of the trademark filings currently read “pending” at the time of writing.

Yuga Labs’ trademark applications were mostly submitted in the latter half of 2021. They covered a bunch of BAYC logos, artwork and branding for potential use across digital products such as nonfungible token (NFT)-based art, trading cards and metaverse wearables.

The filings also list the potential for physical BAYC products, including clothing, jewelry, watches and keychains, along with entertainment services such as gaming, television and music.

Opposition example. Source: USPTO

Speaking with Bloomberg Law on Feb. 11, a Yuga Labs spokesperson played down the chances of Cahen’s opposition being successful and suggested that the move was just another attempt to cause trouble for the firm.

“The Trademark Office has preliminarily approved Yuga Labs’ trademark applications for registration, and we look forward to their full approval in due course,” they said, adding that:

“Jeremy Cahen’s filing is just another attempt to distract from the real issue at hand, his infringement of the Yuga intellectual property.”

In the notice, Cahen puts forward a lengthy list of “grounds for opposition” against Yuga Labs’ filings. In particular, Cahen claims that the company “abandoned any rights” to certain logo and artwork designs due to BAYC NFT sales granting “all rights” of the digital images to the owners.

He also claims that Yuga Labs is not the rightful owner of specific skull designs due to the firm supposedly handing over the rights to the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) back in March 2022.

Additionally, Cahen argues that Yuga Labs failed to provide a “bona fide intent to lawfully use” the trademarks in its filings, as the NFTs should be registered and classified as securities under federal law.

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BAYC creators Yuga Labs sued digital artists Ryder Ripps and Cahen back in June 2022 for using BAYC imagery in the RR/BAYC collection. The firm also alleged that the duo was intentionally “trolling Yuga Labs and scamming consumers” into purchasing their copycat NFTs.

The move from Cahen also comes just three days after Yuga Labs settled a separate lawsuit against RR/BAYC website and smart contract developer Thomas Lehman.

As part of the settlement, Lehman essentially agreed to a permanent injunction barring him from partaking in any “confusingly similar” BAYC-related projects. In a statement, Lehman also distanced himself from Ryder Ripp and Cahen.